USDA infighting blamed in sick cow mixup

Consumer groups say others not tested

BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press

Published 3:30 am, Saturday, May 8, 2004

SAN ANGELO — Infighting between two departments within the U.S. Department of Agriculture led to the mix-up at a West Texas slaughterhouse, where a sick cow was processed for swine feed rather than tested for signs of mad cow disease, an official at Lone Star Beef says.

"Maybe something like this is what it's going to take to get them to work together," said Burley Smith, vice president of Lone Star Beef, where the cow was killed last week.

The cow passed an initial visual inspection by a veterinarian with the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, but he later saw the cow stumble and collapse. Such behavior is sometimes caused by brain damage, a sign of mad cow disease, but other illnesses or injuries may have caused the collapse.

The vet condemned the animal as unfit for human consumption and recommended to a regional director with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Austin that samples from the cow's brain be tested, Smith said.

But the regional director told the vet not to test the cow, Smith said. Instead, it was taken to a rendering plant where the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates rendering plants, approved it for use in swine feed. Swine are thought not to be susceptible to mad cow disease.

USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said it was a mistake not to test the animal and the matter was under investigation. He said "clearly there was some confusion" about the protocol, but he denied infighting was the problem.

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"The cooperation in this investigation has been excellent," Loyd said.

The USDA has not released the names of the vet or the regional director, and Smith said he didn't know them.

Several consumer groups this week called for congressional hearings into the case. The groups have accused the USDA of being lax in trying to find more mad cow disease because of the damage it would do to the beef industry. Former beef industry officials hold important positions in the department.

Felicia Nestor, a spokeswoman for the Government Accountability Project, which protects federal whistle-blowers, said she's heard of other cases across the country where field inspectors were told by regional offices not to test animals showing signs of brain disorders.

The USDA said this week that it contacted inspectors at all slaughterhouses and regional offices across the country to reaffirm its policy that all possible brain-diseased cattle be tested.

The department is conducting an internal investigation into why the cow, a Limousin that came from a Texas producer, was not tested. Smith declined to name the producer.

Lone Star Beef, the 18th-largest slaughterhouse in the country, slaughters 800 cows a day and is a supplier for the McDonald's fast-food chain.

Also Friday, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the USDA is investigating whether the United States wrongly imported millions of pounds of Canadian beef that were banned because of mad cow disease concerns.

R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America, a U.S. cattle industry group, this week accused the USDA of improperly allowing imports of 3.5 million pounds of Canadian bone-in meat products between September 2003 and February 2004.

The beef products have been banned in the United States as a safety precaution since Canada discovered a domestic case of mad cow disease one year ago.

Reuters News Service contributed to this report.

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